Fake vintage

I received a message from someone that one of my restorations had been tampered with. Turned out the original had been altered by someone, and then me not paying attention had restored and colorized it.

With billions of tutorials released by Adobe, it’s not surprising this would happen. I spent an entire day removing the photoshopped version of this bearded man, and then re-colorized him. This is the second image I’ve found in my collection that’s not authentic. In all honesty, the work done is seamless so whoever did it knew their way around photoshop. I had to track down a photo of Marvel’s Odin to realize the eye cover was the same – not looking for that I’d not realize.

There are thousands of people who release fun creative work like the old time baseball players with lightsabers, or turning cabinet cards into retro science fiction images. There are photographers now who are turning their style into the photo style of the Victorian Era, and doing a professional job of it. Just be aware. Not all vintage photos online are from the 1850s.